


A Newfound Calling

by Mintaka14



Category: Second Sons Series - Jennifer Fallon
Genre: Breaking Free, F/M, brilliant minds, jacinta is devious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:22:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22995409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mintaka14/pseuds/Mintaka14
Summary: Jacinta D'Orlon is facing her duty to her family and a marriage with whatever blueblood brute her mother has chosen, and she has resigned herself to her fate. Almost.Fair warning: there are spoilers for the end of the Second Sons series within.
Relationships: Jacinta D'Orlon/Dirk Provin





	A Newfound Calling

**Author's Note:**

> This fanfic falls close to the end of the third book in Jennifer Fallon's Second Sons series. Jacinta D'Orlon, cousin to the Queen of Dhevyn, has returned home after everything at her mother's command to face a dynastic marriage that Jacinta has had no say in.

**A Newfound Calling**

A Second Sons fanfiction

By Mintaka14

Jacinta D’Orlon was running out of options. For all she had made light of it, her poise was starting to desert her now that she was faced with her fate, and she slowly stripped the jewels from her hair as she stared blankly at her reflection in the mirror. Behind her, her mother stood ramrod straight and tight-lipped until the last servant bustled out, taking linens and trays with them.

“Well. The dinner party was a complete debacle,” the Duchess snapped as soon as the doors finally closed with a gentle click.

“I could tolerate Raban putting his hands all over me,” Jacinta said to her reflection with an attempt at flippancy, “although if he had drifted any lower I would have been tempted to break his wrist. I draw the line at being told that he likes a high-spirited filly and slapped on my withers. For a moment, I thought Raban was going to give me an apple, or a sugar lump, and send me off to the stables.”

“You should be grateful that Raban Seranov still wants to marry you at all, after the disgraceful way you’ve behaved.”

Jacinta’s hand froze, then she made herself put the diamond pins carefully on the table in front of her.

“Disgraceful?” She tugged another pin free with a little less care, and winced as it pulled her hair with it. “Haven’t you been paying _any_ attention to what’s been going on, Mother?”

“Don’t take that tone with me, young lady. My daughter, following the Senetian army like some common camp trull. I hope you realise the damage that you have done to our family with that particular escapade.”

“In my defence, I was there as the Queen’s envoy,” Jacinta attempted.

“No one seriously believes that.” The tone of her mother’s voice could flay flesh. “Saban told me about how you made a spectacle of yourself at Bollow to get that boy confirmed as the Lord of the Suns.”

“His name is Dirk Provin,” Jacinta said, not really expecting that her mother would hear, or care.

“I’ve also heard about how much time you have spent unchaperoned in his company.”

At that, Jacinta flushed. “There was a time when you would have been pushing me at Dirk Provin, back when he was the Duke of Elcast's acknowledged second son.”

The Duchess ignored her daughter’s interruption.

“And now you ignore your duty to the family and jeopardise the marriage your father and I have been negotiating.”

“Duty?” Jacinta heard her voice crack on the word, and took a deep breath to bring herself back under control. “Is that the sum total of my worth to you? A bloodline and a womb? Do you have any idea what I’ve been doing, Mother? The world has changed and reshaped itself. There’s a new king on the throne of Senet, one who doesn’t hold Dhevyn’s throat in his iron fist, and I helped to put him there. Doesn’t that mean anything to you? Our country is free, Alenor is Queen of Dhevyn in her own right, and the Shadowdancers’ power has collapsed.”

“And the less we say about your role in that, the better. You’re nineteen, and past time you settled down. Your father and I had hoped that allowing you to join the Queen’s retinue when she travelled to Senet would get this intransigence of yours out of your system, but clearly we were mistaken. Any respectable man of standing is thinking twice before taking a wife who has proved herself as brazen and intractable as you have done. I can only be grateful that Raban Seranov is still willing to take you.”

“The only thing that would make him reconsider would be if our family lost our wealth and lands, or if you and Father were to disown me,” Jacinta interjected drily.

“Don’t think we wouldn’t, should you disgrace our family name any further,” the Duchess snapped in exasperation. “Your smart mouth is going to land us all in trouble one of these days. I should have you bundled off to the nearest Sundancer temple that will take you.”

That threat again. Her mother dragged out the threat to send her off to prayer and contemplation for the rest of her life in a temple every time Jacinta crossed her will. It didn’t seem to have occurred to her that Jacinta might consider that a better option than marriage to someone like Raban

Jacinta stiffened. It felt as if a lightning bolt had shot through her at those words.

Her mother was still talking, lecturing her, as Jacinta put down the brush in her hand with exaggerated care and sat immobile, turning a thought over so staggering and so obvious that she couldn’t believe it had never occurred to her before.

The Sundancer temples were monastic, but hardly as austere as her mother seemed to think, and good goddess! The libraries! Everything she had ever wanted suddenly opened up before her. Education, research and the chance to really put her talents to use. No one stood closer to the heart of politics than the Lord of the Suns, and she wanted to be a part of that. She had spent the past year at the centre of world-shaking events, helping shape the rise and fall of kings and empires, and now that it came down to it, she didn’t want to give that up and go meekly to the altar.

And then there was the man – hardly more than a boy, really, her own age – who had not only met Jacinta’s mind and matched it, but pulled off a plot so breathtakingly, recklessly torturous in its scope that it still left Jacinta feeling dizzy and more than a little infatuated.

Dirk Provin.

The Lord of the Suns himself.

The boy could kiss, too.

Jacinta pressed her fingertips to her lips as a sudden flush that rose in her cheeks at the memory of that moment in his office when he’d set her world on fire. She couldn’t afford to think about that now.

Jacinta drew a shaky breath. Did she really dare to do this?

“Perhaps that would be for the best, mother,” Jacinta said slowly, still gathering her wits.

“Jacinta?”

Jacinta looked up, meeting her mother’s startled eyes in the mirror.

“You can’t be serious, girl.”

“I can hear the Goddess calling me to her even as we speak,” Jacinta said, the spark of flippancy returning to her voice. The Duchess’ eyes turned steely.

“If you do this, Jacinta, you will no longer be our daughter,” she said coldly, and Jacinta was a little surprised at how much that hurt. She closed her eyes briefly.

“Think of everything you would be giving up,” her mother said, sensing triumph. “Your family, your position. The name D’Orlon will mean less than nothing if you take the vows, and we will not take you back. Do you think you will find all of this,” she gestured at the gilt and silk room around them, “in a cold, stone temple somewhere?”

Jacinta stood abruptly. She almost laughed, thinking of Dirk in the middle of the Lord of the Suns’ palace and one of their conversations about the tasteless wealth of religion. “I think I will manage. And just think of what I’ll gain.”

“If you choose to disgrace yourself in this way, you take nothing with you but the clothes on your back. Not your gowns, nor your jewels, nor our blessings. Every door will be closed to you. How will you make your way in the world then? How will you even reach your precious temple?”

“Would it please you if I sold myself on the streets to make the coin?” Jacinta bit back. Her mother’s hand lashed out, and Jacinta’s head rocked, her cheek stinging with the force of the slap. She stayed where she was, breathing hard with her eyes fixed stubbornly on the wall until the Duchess wheeled around and stalked out of the room.

Jacinta drew a sharp breath and glanced down at the dressing table beside her, still strewn with pins and discarded earrings. She was tempted to gather up one of the jewelled necklaces and stuff it down her dress – the ruby-studded collar maybe, or the pearl drops – but her mother was quite capable of having her searched, or setting the guards after her if she made it out the door with anything more than what she stood in. It was going to be hard enough to break from the family without that, and she did have other resources that she was fairly certain her mother had not considered.

Her fingers brushed over the tiny gold pendant on the table that her father had given her in a brief moment of paternal fondness. It was one of her very few warm memories of her childhood. Jacinta curled her fingers up, clenching her hand, and turned away abruptly.

The streets were crowded, but Jacinta didn’t have the time or the money to summon a sedan chair. On reflection, it had probably been unwise to walk the whole distance from her family’s townhouse to the palace without at least changing her elegant, heeled slippers for footwear a little more robust, but blazing anger and spite carried Jacinta a long way. She gathered the fury close and let it fuel her, ignoring the hope and fear that lay behind it for now. As she stalked up to the palace gates, she was fortunate that the guards on duty recognised her in spite of her slightly dishevelled appearance, and she swept past them, disregarding the whispers and gossip that followed her down the ranks of footmen and courtiers, into her cousin’s throne room.

She barely paused for the formal declaration of her presence.

“Your Majesty, I’ve come to claim your royal favour,” she announced, her heels ringing decisively on the marble as she strode the length of the room. Queen Alenor took one startled look at Jacinta’s face and beckoned a secretary to her side. With a quick, whispered conference, the room was swept bare of extraneous people.

“Oh, Jacinta,” the Queen sighed. “What have you done now?”

“I’ve simply come to call in your favour. Surely there must be a bag of gold, or a reward or something for negotiating the peace treaty and saving Your Majesty’s life?” Jacinta asked lightly, and Alenor narrowed her eyes.

“You’re doing that joking thing again,” she accused.

“At least this time the only life on the line is mine. So, may I claim that reward, and maybe passage on the next royal ship to Senet, or do I really need to go and sell myself on the streets?”

“Am I going to have your parents here seeking blood?” Alenor asked drily. “Just so I can organise the Queen’s Guards in plenty of time to protect me, what am I dealing with here?”

“I heard the voice of the Goddess calling me to her service,” Jacinta said airily. “My mother threatened to ship me off to a Sundancer temple for my sins, and I suddenly realised that there was nothing I desired more than to give myself in worship for the rest of my days. And where is more holy than the Temple of the Suns in Bollow?”

“Under the Lord of the Suns. Which is purely coincidental, I’m sure,” her cousin filled in, finally understanding.

“But when it came down to it, the temple didn’t appeal to my mother after all and I was told I could be a good little daughter and marry the blue-blooded brute of her choice or I could walk out the door in what I’m standing in and take my chances. So here I am, taking my chances.”

“Jacinta…”

“I spent the evening dining with my intended,” Jacinta said in a tightly controlled voice that felt like it was strangling in her throat. “The words ‘broke to bridle’ were used.”

Alenor made a distressed sound.

“It’s as simple as this, Allie. Would you rather give me enough coin to get me to Senet, which is no more than my due, or would you rather have me here growing more bitter with every passing year and plotting ways out of my boredom? Coming up with creative ways to dispose of Raban Seranov, and whoever my mother marries me off to after I’ve buried him in the kitchen garden? You think Dirk caused chaos in Senet? That will be nothing to what will happen here if I have to pretend to be a dutiful daughter and bride much longer.”

The Queen was staring at her. “That had better be the joking thing again,” she said slowly.

“Allie, I’m not asking you to stand between my mother and me. I know the position you’re in, and that you need my family’s support. Just give me enough to make it as far as Senet and I’ll do the rest. I need this. Please.”

Alenor gave an unhappy little sigh.

“I’m going to miss you, Jacinta.”

Jacinta gave her a slightly shaky smile. “Oh, I’m sure we’ll see each other again, if my mother doesn’t have me assassinated some dark night.”

“Don’t even joke about it.”

The secretary summoned by Alenor’s raised hand presented the Queen with a rolled document which she handed to Jacinta, who swept her a deep and only slightly mocking curtsey.

“Go with Our gratitude, if not Our blessings,” Queen Alenor said formally.

As Jacinta turned to leave, she heard Alenor add, “And say hello to Dirk for me.”

Lady Jacinta D’Orlon walked out the doors with steps that grew lighter every moment as she headed towards her newfound calling.

**Author's Note:**

> There isn't a huge amount of Jennifer Fallon fanfiction, as far as I can see, and that's a shame. I love Jennifer Fallon's Second Sons series - I'm a sucker for the convoluted conspiracies that she pulls off, and the dramatic characters. Jacinta D'Orlon and Dirk Provin are two of my favourite characters. They're the kind of mind-bending smart and devious that makes you grateful they're using their powers for good and not evil, and together they're a serious force to be reckoned with. But towards the end of the series we have Jacinta leaving in a cloud of martyrdom to marry a noble idiot that her family has chosen for her, and then, abruptly, she turns up on Dirk's doorstep happily telling him that that was never going to happen. Something happened in between, and this is my version of what those events might have been.I hope you enjoyed A Newfound Calling. Constructive criticism and comments are always enthusiastically welcomed.


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